Women's volleyball upends top-ranked Emory to take W&L Invitational title

(Posted September 12, 2009)

LEXINGTON, Va. -- The Juniata College women's volleyball team completed play in the Washington & Lee Invitational with a 3-1 win over no. 1-ranked Emory University, Saturday afternoon in Lexington, Va. Set scores for the Eagles were 25-18, 25-22, 23-25, and 25-19.

Senior libero Megan Sollenberger (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) turned up 35 digs with one service ace, on her way to earning Tournament MVP honors. She was joined on the All-Tournament team by Steph Strauss (Penn Hills, Pa./Penn Hills), who recorded 13 digs with one service ace.

"I thought we grew up a lot in this match," said Juniata associate head coach Heather Pavlik. "It was a great match, with a very different feel from our first match today Ã¢?" a very different tempo. We had to switch gears very quickly today, and I thought we did a good job of that."

The Eagles opened the day with a 3-0 win over Christopher Newport University, by set scores of 25-18, 25-19, and 26-24.

Barnhart again paced the Juniata offense with nine kills, while Johnston racked up eight kills. Kristin Noetzel (Closter, N.J./Northern Valley Regional) also had eight kills, and recorded five total blocks.

Sollenberger had 35 digs for the Eagles, with Morchesky turning up another 10 digs to aid Juniata's cause defensively.

"We played pretty patiently, which was great to see," said Pavlik. " We had to get some long rallies, and we were patient during those long rallies until we were able to get a good swing. Overall, we played pretty well."

Juniata (9-0) makes its annual trip to St. Louis, Mo., next weekend, to take part in Washington University's Teri Clemens Invitational. The Eagles open the tournament against the host squad from Washington University, followed by matches on Saturday against the University of La Verne and St. Thomas University (Minn.).